1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article conveyor belt for conveying an article by pushing the article in a predetermined direction to a predetermined position. In particular, the present invention relates to an article conveyor belt suitable for conveying a light-weight article, such as a monetary coin, to a predetermined direction by pushing, whose manufacturability and maintainability is cost effective. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a coin sorting device using the article conveyor belt.
2. Description of Related Art
As a first prior art, a coin conveyor belt in which a toothed surface, including a plurality of tooth parts that engage with a pulley, are provided to a belt body is known, wherein each tooth part extends in a belt width direction with a space along a belt length direction. A large tooth part is provided at predetermined pitches among these tooth parts, the large tooth part having at least one of a tooth height dimension and a tooth length direction set larger than that of other tooth parts, and an engaging plate for engaging with a coin for conveyance when the belt is driven as provided on a side surface of this large tooth part (for example, refer to Japanese Patent No. 3588480).
As a second prior art, a coin conveyor belt is known, including a belt body provided with a plurality of hole portions penetrating through front and back surfaces along a coin conveying direction and is also provided at a plurality of positions in a belt width direction crossing the coin conveying direction. The coin conveyor belt also includes a plurality of projections each having a coin pushing part engaged with a front surface side of this belt body, an insertion part arranged inside a hole portion of the belt body, a holding part engaged with a back surface side of the belt body to hold the belt body with a coin pushing part, and a detent part for stopping any rotation with respect to the belt body. The projections are provided with an inclined surface on a side of the coin pushing part opposite to the coin conveying direction. The inclined surface being inclined from a belt body side of the coin pushing part toward a projection tip side of the coin pushing part, and the projections being allowed to be inserted into the hole portions of the belt body and engaged with the belt body, with the inclined surface part being positioned on the side opposite to the coin conveying direction of the coin pushing part (for example, refer to Japanese Patent No. 3725720).
As a third prior art, a coin conveyor belt is known having a toothed surface including a plurality of tooth parts engaging with a pulley being provided on a thermosetting urethane-made belt body, each of the tooth parts being spaced apart in a belt length direction and extending in a belt width direction. A large tooth part is provided with every predetermined pitch among the tooth parts, the large tooth part with at least one of a tooth height dimension and a tooth length dimension being set to be larger than that of the other tooth parts, and the belt, including an engaging plate, being provided on a side surface of this large tooth part. The engaging plate permits engaging and conveying a coin when the belt runs, wherein the engaging plate is formed in a push pin shape having a pin part. A pin hole is provided on the large tooth part to extend in its width direction, and the coin conveyor belt is mounted on the side surface of the large tooth part with the pin part of the engaging plate inserted in the pin hole, wherein t represents a thickness of a bottom part, H represents a tooth height from a pitch line, h represents a tooth height, R represents a root, and W represents a width among shape elements of the large tooth part. The coin conveyor belt has a shape satisfying the following relationships of t≧0.6 mm, t/D≦0.034 where D represents a back-surface idler pulley diameter, H/D≦0.12 and h/D≦0.096, and W/D≦0.174 and R/D>0.02. For example, refer to Japanese Patent Application No. 20106563.
As a fourth prior art, a profile-equipped belt having belt teeth engaging with pulley teeth of a toothed pulley and having a profile mounted thereon is also known. The belt width is set wider than a length of the toothed pulley in a center axis direction and the profile includes a profile body with a projection piece projecting from a substrate in contact with a back surface side and a nail part formed integrally with the profile body and positioned on a tooth surface side to be engaged with a relevant belt tooth. A substrate is set to have a length covering a plurality of teeth and tooth grooves of the toothed belt so as to inhibit falling of the profile body and to be resistant to any reaction force received from an article to be conveyed and, by being curved in the belt width direction to be shrunk. A side edge part projecting from the toothed pulley across a belt width direction is inserted and held between the nail part and the substrate from inside within the belt width direction. (For example, refer to Japanese Patent No. 4313409).